Richter unit signs licensing agreement with Watson

Thursday, December 16, 2010, 10:59

Hungarian drug maker Gedeon Richter on Thursday said it its Swiss unit PregLem signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Watson Laboratories to develop and market a drug to treat uterine fibroids in the United States and Canada.

Watson will pay PregLem a $17 million license fee along with royalties for the drug, called Esmya. Watson will make additional payments based on the achievement of regulatory milestones. (MTI-Econews)

Related articles

Hungarian drugmaker Gedeon Richter said late on Monday it would book a HUF 42 billion impairment loss related to its uterine fibroid drug Esmya, which has come under scrutiny by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for potentially related liver damage. The Richter share price dropped on Tuesday on the news.

Hungarian drugmaker Gedeon Richterʼs fourth-quarter net income fell 70% year-on-year to HUF 6.6 billion, dragged lower by a financial loss and tax payments, an earnings report published early Monday shows, exceeding the most pessimistic of forecasts of analysts last week. Richterʼs net income for the full year was down 23% at HUF 51.2 bln.

Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter said on Friday that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended temporarily restricting prescriptions of its uterine fibroid drug Esmya until a review of potentially related liver damage, launched in December, has been completed.

Hungarian drugmaker Gedeon Richter may hold off on guidance when it publishes fourth-quarter earnings in February if uncertainty continues surrounding Esmya, its drug for the treatment of uterine cysts, CEO Gábor Orbán told news wire Reuters late Friday.

U.S.-based BlackRockʼs holding in Hungarian drugmaker Gedeon Richter has risen to 5.16%, Richter said yesterday. Richter was informed by BlackRock that its stake had exceeded the 5% disclosure threshold on December 14.

President of the Republic János Áder on Wednesday decorated Erik Bogsch, the chairman of drugmaker Gedeon Richter, with the Order of Merit of Hungary, Grand Cross, at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and House Speaker László Kövér.

The board of Gedeon Richter appointed COO Gábor Orbán as the drugmakerʼs new CEO at a meeting on Monday, Richter announced. Orbán will replace Erik Bogsch, who asked to be relieved after holding the position for 25 years, effective from November 1, 2017.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion on Hungarian drugmaker Gedeon Richter’s application for cariprazine, a novel antipsychotic for the treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal on Friday.